This may have already been discussed elsewhere, but I’d like to start an entire thread dedicated to this topic.

Many times before, the Tony Awards for Book and Score have gone hand-in-hand (especially within the last three years). Though I’ve noticed that several people are predicting Tina Fey to win Book for Mean Girls. While I understand that she’s done quite a bit of campaigning, didn’t she just basically do a straightforward adaptation of the film where the only major differences are that it’s been updated to 2018? As I’ve said before, whenever a musical adaptation of a film wins this category, it’s usually for a more inventive adaptation like The Producers, Hairspray, Billy Elliot, and Once. If you watch any of those original films, then take a look at their musical counterparts, you can see that they’re more than just straightforward adaptations as they’re able to stand on their own.

From what I’ve been hearing, The Band’s Visit seems to fit more into that mold than Mean Girls. Plus, while that latter show does tie with SpongeBob SquarePants for the most nominations, I doubt that it even has snob appeal.

I don’t understand your argument. The Band’s Visit was also adapted from a motion picture, just like Mean Girls. I haven’t seen The Band’s Visit on Broadway, but it is supposedly the frontrunner in this category because it is also the frontrunner for Best Musical. I have seen both Mean Girls and Spongebob on Broadway though and if I were a voter, I’d give the win to Tina Fey. The book for Mean Girls expanded on the movie and is filled with original jokes and funny one-liners. While I enjoyed Spongebob for the most part, there were a lot of references and things that I didn’t get because I hadn’t watched the animated show it’s based on. I have a feeling that there will be a number of voters who will end up feeling the same (it is a fun show though!).

Also, Tina Fey is very much a major NYC presence in the entertainment industry, so she might be hard to resist honoring… especially when voters can spread the wealth and give The Bands Visit Best Musical and Best Original Music (although I want to see Spongebob take that category!).

Also, Tina Fey is very much a major NYC presence in the entertainment industry, so she might be hard to resist honoring… especially when voters can spread the wealth and give The Bands Visit Best Musical and Best Original Music (although I want to see Spongebob take that category!).

Though last year, Tony voters had the amazing opportunity to spread the wealth among the nominees for Best Original Score. Pasek & Paul were already winning that award for Dear Evan Hansen, and they could’ve given Irene Sankoff & David Hein Book for Come From Away and Dave Malloy Best Orchestrations for The Great Comet. Yet, Dear Evan Hansen swept through all three of those categories.

Andrew-and BV deserves it. It took a film and actually made a musical that wasn’t a carbon copy (I think the musical might even be better). The book and score are woven together very seamlessly. All creatives deserve praise for this.

If Tina Fey wins this, then it’s like when Cyndi Lauper won for Best Score for Kinky Boots over Tim Minchin’s incredibly superior in EVERY WAY score for Matilda. Celebrity and name-recognition winning over merit.

Though the difference there is that Kinky Boots ended up being a huge contender, winning 6 Tonys overall (including Best Musical). Mean Girls on the other hand, doesn’t appear to be as strong of a contender in other categories.

Though the difference there is that Kinky Boots ended up being a huge contender, winning 6 Tonys overall (including Best Musical). Mean Girls on the other hand, doesn’t appear to be as strong of a contender in other categories.

True. I understand its wins. I mean Kinky Boots is fun and it’s still running, but the quality of material just pales in comparison to Matilda. I think they were just fatigued of British imports, they still remember Billy Elliot, a bunch of Broadway heavyweights and insiders like Harvey Fierstein were behind Kinky Boots, and they wanted to award a show that was super emotional and made audiences feel good about a simplistic message of acceptance/tolerance that made them feel good about themselves. Matilda was more cerebral even though its based on a children’s book…but it was a Roald Dahl book so there’s more there.